Paries Aures Fert
Aures fert paries, oculos nemus: ergo cavere
Debet, qui loquitur, ne possint verba nocere.
Source: Philosophia Patrum (ed. Wegeler), 81. Meter: Dactylic Hexameter. Note the rhyme: cavere-nocere.
The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:
The wall (paries) has ears (aures fert); the woods (nemus) have eyes (oculos): therefore (ergo) the person who speaks (qui loquitur) must be careful (cavere debet) so that his words (verba) cannot do harm (ne possint nocere).
pariēs (parietis, m.): wall
auris -is f.: ear
caveo -ēre cāvī cautum: be on guard, beware
dēbeo -ēre dēbuī dēbitum: owe, be obliged
ergo: therefore
fero ferre tulī lātum: bear, carry
loquor loquī locūtus sum: speak, talk
nē: lest, that not
nemus nemoris n.: grove, forest
noceo nocēre nocuī: harm
oculus -ī m.: eye
possum posse potuī: be able
qui, quae, quod: who, which, what; quis quid: who? what? which?
verbum -ī n.: word
